Augustus Fountain

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Augustusbrunnen on the Rathausplatz in Augsburg

The Augustusbrunnen is one of the three magnificent fountains in Augsburg , along with the Merkurbrunnen and Herkulesbrunnen . It is located on the town hall square and represents the city's founder, the Roman emperor Augustus . A splendidly forged fountain grille prevents access to the edge of the pool and the water in the fountain. As part of the historic Augsburg water management system, the Augustus Fountain has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since July 6, 2019.

location

The Augustus Fountain is not located on today's Augsburg Town Hall Square directly opposite the Augsburg Town Hall , but rather in front of the Perlach Tower directly adjacent to it . The “off-center” position of the magnificent fountain on the square is due to the fact that the Rathausplatz was originally much smaller than it is today. It was not until the early 1960s that it was enlarged to its present-day dimensions in the course of the removal of ruins from the air raids of World War II , and the fountain was also moved a few meters to the north.

history

The Augsburger Augustusbrunnen was cast by the city caster Peter Wagner from 1588 to 1594 based on models by the Dutch sculptor Hubert Gerhard . Bronze and brass were used for casting . The basin and the fountain column are made of marble .

As already suspected in the 19th century, the design of the fountain could come from Peter Candid . In the Louvre there are two drawings of a fountain figure that Peter Candid be attributed now. The drawings are very detailed, but there is no circlet on the upper arm and the contents of the cornucopia are more lavish. In the exhibition catalog “Wasser Kunst Augsburg” (2018) you can read that Candid drew the figure shortly after the casting and later the bracelet was added to avoid cracking the upper arm. In fact, there are casting defects on the underside of the upper arm, but the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments rules out the subsequent attachment of the upper arm bracelet. So there are only two options left: Either Peter Candid drew the (almost) finished wax model, the artist Hubert Gerhard thought the arm of the figure was too “naked”, and he added a bracelet - or Peter Candid drew the designs for it Figure, and maybe for the whole fountain. The filigree drawn cornucopia with ears of wheat could probably not have been implemented in the cast; a simplified implementation in the cast would be plausible.

Statue of Augustus

Augustus Fountain, Emperor Augustus

The figure of Augustus is about 2.50 m high and, according to ancient tradition, weighs 27 hundredweight Vienna , that is about 1500 kg. Since the casting core is still in the figure, the bronze weight percentage is significantly lower. The cast of the figure weighs only about 600 kg.

The emperor is shown as a man of about 50 years. The gesture of the raised right hand is that of the " adlocutio ", the solemn address to the army. A laurel wreath adorns the emperor's head; Laurel as a sign of fame, honor, calm and peace. On the tunic are reliefs to see that should symbolize the characteristics of an emperor: lion heads as a sign of strength, dolphins with trident as a sign of rapid decision and Tritons , combination of man and fish. At the feet of Augustus is the city coat of arms of Augsburg , the pine cone (the stone pine nut ) on a Corinthian capital, and two capricorn skulls , references to the zodiac sign under which Augustus was born.

Inscriptions

The inscriptions on this fountain, originally made of inlaid metal letters, were replaced by fire-gilded inscriptions in 1749. The first inscription is dedicated to Emperor Augustus , the founder and benefactor of the city: IMP.CAES.DIVI.F AUGUSTO PARENTI COLONIA AUGUSTA VINDEL. After the Roman conquest of the foothills of the Alps by Drusus and Tiberius , the civil settlement at the confluence of the Lech and Wertach rivers was probably named Augusta Vindelicum under Emperor Tiberius . The second inscription refers to Emperor Rudolf II , during whose reign the fountain was erected: POSITA ANNO A.CHR NATO MDXCIII IMP.CAES.RUDOLPHO PFAUG. Today the inscription is expanded as follows: MONUMENTUM BELLO DESTRUCTUM AD MCMXXXXIV RENOVATUM AERE CIVITATIAS AD MCML, and commemorates the destruction in the last war and the restoration in 1950 . The plaque facing west has the inscription: ANNO A. COL DED MDCV IOAN VELSERUS II VIR PROBAVIT = In 1605, since the inauguration of the planting city (= 11 BC ), the city caretaker Johannes Welser gave his approval. The fourth tablet was initially blank. Only later did she take up the texts that report on restoration work on the fountain in 1672 and 1749.

Fountain figures

Augustus fountain, feminine term

On the pillar of the well there are female herms , also known as peg women, who spray water from their breasts. They are symbols of abundance, of wealth. The four water deities on the edge of the fountain symbolically represent the rivers Lech , Wertach , Brunnenbach and Singold . The figures are:

  • The Lech, as a river god with a wreath of spruce cones, wolf skin and raftsman paddles, adorned with reeds, crabs and fish.
  • The Singold, as a river goddess with a crown of ears, ears of corn and a cogwheel quarter.
  • The Wertach, as a river god with oak leaf wreath, fishing net and fish.
  • The Brunnenbach, as a river goddess with a crown-like headdress, eye-catching necklace and veil. In her left hand she carries a cornucopia overflowing with rare fruits and in her right hand a decorated jug.

These depictions of the rivers were not cast from bronze , but from a brass alloy . So they shone golden before a patina formed.

This above-mentioned assignment of river deities to rivers has only recently become established in art historical research. Close to the time when the fountain was built, there are no writings that describe the fountain and its symbolism in detail, and this was probably only known to a few.

For a long time there was a different assignment of the four figures to the rivers. Here the figures stand for Lech, Wertach, Brunnenbach and Singold in the order given above. In this assignment, the grammatical gender corresponds to the gender of the figure. This deviating assignment can, however, be described as incorrect, because on the title engraving by Markus Welser's book Rerum augustanarum vindelicarum libri octo the Lech is depicted on the left as a river god with the attributes of a spruce cone wreath, raftsman paddle and wolf skin, and on the right the Wertach as a river god with an oak wreath .

Some authors also assign the four figures to the seasons , whereby according to a source from 1985 the two women are interpreted as spring and summer and the two men as autumn and winter , or the four elements .

Fountain grille

The fountain grille created by Georg Scheff in 1564, which is crowned by spiral tendrils and spindle flowers, is a masterpiece of blacksmithing .

Preservation

The optimal method of preservation for a bronze certainly offers its accommodation in the interior. The figure of Augustus is the most damaged due to the unfavorable alloy composition compared to the other bronzes at the Augustus Fountain. This fact moved the city of Augsburg to set up the bronze sculpture in the interior. The fountain column is now crowned by a bronze cast of the Augustus figure, the original is presented in the glass roof-covered inner courtyard of the Maximilian Museum . During the World Cup celebrations in 2014, when football fans besieged the magnificent Augsburg fountain, there was damage. This moved the city to replace the remaining figures in the Augustus Fountain with copies. This was gradually implemented and was completed in mid-2018. All the originals of the fountain, including the bronzes of the other magnificent fountains, are now in the Maximilian Museum.

Detailed views

  • Fountain column

  • Emperor Augustus

  • Lech

  • Singold

  • Wertach

  • Brunnenbach

  • Lattice, in the background the Brunnenbach fountain figure

  • Engraving by Lucas Kilian , 1598

See also

literature

  • Helmut Friedel : bronze picture monuments in Augsburg 1589-1606. Image and urbanity . Ed .: Stadtarchiv Augsburg (=  treatises on the history of the city of Augsburg . Volume 22 ). Mühlberger, Augsburg 1974, ISBN 3-921133-14-9 , pp. 28–58, 109–110, 117–124, Fig. 1–12 (also dissertation, University of Munich 1973 / meanwhile - after the Hieronymus Mühlberger publishing house was dissolved in 1992 - in the publisher's offer of Wißner-Verlag , Augsburg , under ISBN 3-89639- 306-5 ).
  • Jürgen Bartel: Augsburg fountain . Ed .: Walter Settele, Brigitte Ruchti-Settele. BRV Settele, Augsburg 1989, DNB  94294495X , p. 23-26 .
  • Martha Schad : Well in Augsburg . Gondrom, Bindlach 1992, ISBN 3-8112-0791-1 , p. 8-21 .
  • Michael Kühlental (arrangement): The Augustus Fountain in Augsburg . With contributions by Bernd Roeck , Dorothea Diemer, Kerstin Brendel, Martin Mach, Michael Kühlental. Ed .: Messerschmitt Foundation (=  reports on monument preservation ). Hirmer, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7774-9890-4 .
  • Martin Kluger : Augsburg historical water management. The way to the UNESCO World Heritage. Hydraulic engineering and hydropower, drinking water and fountain art in Augsburg (around 1400–1921) . 1st edition. context verlag, Augsburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-939645-81-8 , p. 340-364 .

Web links

Commons : Augustusbrunnen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Assignment of the figures to the rivers according to Martin Kluger : Augsburgs historical water management. The way to the UNESCO World Heritage. Hydraulic engineering and hydropower, drinking water and fountain art in Augsburg (around 1400–1921) . 1st edition. Context Verlag, Augsburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-939645-81-8 , pp. 340-365 .
  2. ↑ Kerstin Brendel: The Augustus Fountain - its meaning, its sculptor Hubert Gerhard and its artistic development, in: The Augustus Fountain in Augsburg . Hirmer, 2003.
  3. ↑ Marcus Welser: Rerum Augustanarum Vindelicarum libri octo . Aldus, 1594 ( books.google.de ).
  4. ↑ Guide through Augsburg and its surroundings . Köhler, 1839, p. 79 ( books.google.de ).
  5. ^ Hanno-Walter Kruft, Bernd Roeck: Elias Holl and the Augsburg town hall . Pustet, 1985, ISBN 978-3-7917-0962-8 , pp. 147, 262 ( books.google.de ).

Coordinates: 48 ° 22 '8.6 "  N , 10 ° 53' 52.6"  E